The Downside of Reddit and iOS6
by Miki Saxon
My wired friends (which is 90% of them) rag me for my resistance to being wired and periodic rants about privacy, which is so last century.
They tell me that it all makes life better; I tell them what they are full of.
Two recent pieces of information gave me great ammunition to refute their “makes it better” claim.
The first involves Reddit and its creep factor (it could just as easily be Pinterest, Instagram or Tumblr).
Reddit has come under fire for harboring a forum that encourages people to covertly photograph women on the street and upload the images to the site for others to ogle and comment on.
Posted anonymously, of course.
And, of course, those who posted the objectionable pictures, often of underage girls, were extremely upset when they were outed.
These actions, in turn, prompted an outcry from those who felt that they should be able to retain their own anonymity while posting photographs of women without their consent.
Reddit uses the ever popular “Freedom of Speech” defense for not doing anything, but, as Zeynep Tufekci, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill says it doesn’t qualify.
“…those running Reddit are twisting the logic behind that notion because the free speech referenced in this case refers to images of women, often underage girls, taken without their consent, and passed around for pleasure.”
I’m glad I’m beyond the age anyone would bother with my picture.
90% of the 90% mentioned earlier own iPhones, on which they tend to wax lyrical with little to no provocation and immediately upgrade when a new version is launched.
So when I read the Slate article about the new iPhone 5’s default tracking function I gleefully sent it on.
You weren’t imagining things. Apple’s new iOS 6 does, indeed, come with a default setting that tracks your activity, gathering a constant stream of personal data. Apple’s advertising arm, iAd, uses that data to create a targeted, personal ad campaign based on your recent Googling…
The tracking function isn’t just on the iPhone 5, but applies to anything that uses iOS6, like the iPod touch or iPad.
But at least Apple provides a way to turn the feature off (instructions in the article).
If having your cellphone track everything you do in order to send you targeted ads is supposed to improve life then I prefer my life to remain unimproved.
My friends and I will continue to disagree, but I can honestly say I am one happy dinosaur.
Flickr image credit: InfoMofo
